• by November 16, 2007

Cookie tracking happens behind the scenes -- it's not comparable to being physically followed. A better analogy would be if the mall installed cameras and someone noted where people parked, which stores they went into (and for how long), whether they stopped for coffee, how they reacted to new displays -- all without taking their personal info -- and then aggregated the data to improve the shopping experience.

I agree with Aaron that much of it is related to consumer fear and misinformation. My parents have high-speed access and laptops, but have their browser set to warn of cookies; they're suspicious of the whole idea. I explained that no one is stealing their info, and how cookies are used, but I'm still not sure they feel safe (of course, they're also reluctant to use credit cards to buy online).